Seattle/Tech/Evangelist

On Tribes and Leaders

I have to thank Alan Stevens for being my hippie guru and inspiring me to dig deeper. It all started at a talk at CodeStock (back when he had the long hippie hair) and many subsequent ones at DevLink too. Listening and talking to Alan has served as a personal reboot and mental reminder that leadership is all about connecting. Eating together as a family, not backing down on your choices and recognizing the team’s strengths; seem pretty obvious but as they say “common sense is the least common of all senses”.

I finally got to reading and finishing Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin, and while the book is purposely abstract on the methodology to “become a leader” it highlights some of the key points to “building and leading tribes”. I feel dejected when I see so many people intentionally avoiding risks and opportunities to the tune of “I’m safe where I am”. I have been blessed by opportunities early in life that helped me curate some skills (or at least the ability to observe them in perspective) but more so to have a support system that always pushes me to do more and not be afraid to lead when the opportunity strikes.

Being a fan of him and his other books like Purple Cow, Permission Marketing and especially Linchpin; I found Tribes to be a breathe of fresh air with a short request… don’t just follow, find a tribe and lead it.